End of the road evaluation

What I am carrying forward from this class is that it takes many steps and time to do research paper properly. This class transformed my presumption that I can write any kind of essay in one night. The assignments and discussion helped me to realize how complex writing is. It also assured me that definite and indefinite articles are not my friends. As a foreign born I never used them in my native language. As a matter of fact, we do not have them at all. Well lets keep going without further complains.
First week was OK. New assignment, new people and new teacher all contributed to my excitement. But, then came the second week. I felt overwhelmed and I lost some points due to the unarticulated sentence structure. I guess I wanted a lot, but was able to provide lot less. Third week was rebirth of my enthusiasm. I put some good wee hours into my study and was able to recapture momentum. And then came the last week. Last week appeared to me to be a little easier than other. I guess it is because I already had 75% of my final draft done. Thanks Ms. Jennings for making us write bibliography and rough draft.
So, am I satisfied with my achievement? I am one of those guys that always think that it could be done better. There is always place for improvement. As I sad, I may learn to use the definite and indefinite articles better. Due to my tight schedule with classes, family and work, I believe that I did best I could. What would I do better if I had to repeat this class? Probably I would try to start doing assignments earlier so I would have more time for rereading and rewriting them if necessary. But, on the other hand I may have even less time in the future.
This brings us to the final question of this evaluation and the class of English 240; how would I grade my self? This part has always been the hardest one for me. I am never good in grading someone, let alone my self. I always use subjective approach which results in me being a way off the target. So, I will leave this to the Professor Jennings to assess my contributions and level of achievement. I just want to assure everyone that I really put all what I got in order to finish this class with satisfaction of great achievement.
On the end I want to wish all of my followers, colleagues and Professor Jennings good luck in further assignments. Please do not be a stranger, and swing by this blog since I am planning to update it periodically. This blog is also one of great achievements that I was referring above since it is my first ever.


Have great life

Sincerely

Predrag Kovacevic

Dr. King’s “Letter” as a Blog post

I must admit that I was surprised by today’s assignment. As we have discussion on valuation of blogs as resources for research topic, it really makes me think deeper about this question.
I am certain that many of us do not take Blogs as a credible source to be used in serious academic research paper. Discussion about credibility will be here for some time because the blogs are the newest addition to the global world of information.
So, would the Dr. King choose to put him self and his credibility on the line for publishing such important document on the blog spot. My personal opinion is that he would. In this letter he criticizes people that do nothing. He goes to the distance to point that moderate people that do nothing may be even bigger danger than open opposition. So, I presume that he will choose any possible way to spread his message, and to do something, anything. In 1963, the letters are the only one way to do that. Today I am sure that he will use modern technology to influence the people.
Back to the questions of credibility of blogs; even the government thinks that blog is great idea to spread the word about important information's. It may not be widely accepted, but we are going that path, and pretty soon we will be able to accept blogs as a valid source of information. People as Dr. King will surely have great impact on that area of speeding up the recognition process and raising the credibility of blogs, if he was alive today.
In conclusion I would like to address the other advantages of posting this type of letters or any other political materials by the blog media. It is cheap and direct, it is fresh and changeable. It is easy to customize and easy to target the audience. It is convenient way to communicate. All of those advantages and many more are recognized by many businesses and organizations. Many non-profit organizations maintain their blogs in order to inform the public of their contributions. The blogs are also recognized in the world of political dissidents, what Dr. King was at his time. Just remember how important blogs were during voting in Iran and bloody demonstrations afterwards to spread the information that censured press could not.

Week 2 Reflection

Last week assignment on bibliography was not fun as I expected it. Before I started my USA study path, I never heard about styles of citations. However, I got slammed with MLA and APA on my first class. It was mild slam, but still, it was slam. The communication teacher wanted us to use MLA format for our research paper and writing speeches. So MLA is my first choice. But, and there is always but, most of the teachers ask for APA style. Some of them are strict.
I had teacher who was insisting to format in APA style 5th edition? What a heck? I do see importance of proper citations to give credit and kudos to the person who spent time (possible money too) to research and write the document. But common, is it really important to have everything listed in particular order, with exact type style? I believe that if we can have rules on what citation and reference had to contain, and order and format to let on the author discretion, it will really ease the task for many people.
Would I use MLA and APA after I am done with my school? I do not know. Probably is the first word to come up my mind. Everything is standardized, so if I want to fit in, I would need to keep up with standards. Luckily the Purdue Owl writing center and Son of citation machine are there to help me in the future to keep up with today’s and future changes in formatting of my texts.

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/
http://citationmachine.net/

English 240 class
Review of the past week

It is hard to believe that ten days already past from beginning of the class. The learning experience so far is very positive. On the first, I was really overwhelmed with amount of work (read discussions) that I will have to post for this class. To be honest, I still am overwhelmed, but now I know that it is doable.
Trying to keep up with the class and balance it with my other life commitments developed some kind of responsibility that I never had before (it may be just plain insomnia). However if I am comparing this class to the other English classes I had before; this class is much more fun that any other. I love the real life themes, and implementation of modern technologies such as this blog that teacher is using to teach us new tricks. I have feeling that I learned more about summaries and different stages of developing the research project that I learned on my two previous classes.
This week readings about credit cards really hit the home with me. As I stated in my introduction, I am really passionate about finances and financial policies. Also the issue of banks and credit cards is currently the hottest topic of our economy with president and congress taking on the problem very seriously. I was pleasantly surprised when I saw the reading assignment since my topic of credit scores is very closely related to the bank regulations and decisions about credit cards. Some of the authors really touched my nerve, but I will write about that tomorrow in regular discussion board. This is my happy blog after all.
So, judging by past ten days, my expectations for the rest of the class are very high. I expect to learn great part of how to organize and write good persuasive discussions. It may not be my job requirement, but it will give me an added confidence in everyday tasks that will hopefully expand once I get my degree in my hands.
On the end, couple of words about the teacher and classmates; you guys rock. As Christi Hammond, our classmate sad: this class have the most helpful and supportive bunch of people that I had in my class for a long time. The professor is also very helpful and in beginning I was really puzzled what I suppose to do. After the chat session and some clarifications in the emails, now I can follow and understand what and why we have to do all this job. So my fellow followers; have great week and just keep up, and we will all together make it to the finals.

First assignment: Why I chose the degree program I am in?

Hello all my fellow follower.

As you probably figured out so far, I am not one of the regular bloggers. However, I am very excited to try this “new” thing. So let me first introduce my self: I am husband to a wonderful supportive wife of 14 years. We together have two children, which I am very proud of it. As I look back at my life on my milestone, they are the best thing that ever happened to me. My son Sasha is 12 y.o., and he is great honor student at middle school. My daughter Ana is 4 y.o. and she cannot wait to start with her school next fall. So why am I writing all of this when assignment is to write about; why I chose the degree program I am in? Simply, because my kids are the reason that I am going back to school.

I am the holder of bachelor degree in Graphic Design from Europe. As many of you don’t know, but degrees from foreign countries are not really good selling value in the USA. With that degree, I was able to work only as a helping hand to the other designers in stage and scenic industry. So, finally I decide to open my own company for graphic design and signs. Well, everything was great, except I was not with my family. Second bad thing happened when the economy made sharp turn on me, so I was forced to sell my company. After lot of discussions and thoughts, I decide to try to study something which will give me a job from 8-5 and at least some stability. Oh, I did forget to mention that I studied economy in my old country, but never finished it. Well, one thing after another, and choice of accounting was made.

Why do I think accounting is good to study? Every company, profit or non-for-profit, need someone to take care of their accountability. There is a lot opportunities to get hired. I love the numbers, and in particular I enjoy exploring all angels of financial positions, either mine or of my employer. Stability of office work is also attractive in this stage of my life when I want to enjoy spending some quality time with my family. And to be honest, why I chose accounting degree over some other degree programs? I did research before I signed in for classes, and it showed that average pay for mid career accounting professional is earning good money. Also there are a lot of opportunities to grow, especially if you are willing to learn more. As a CPA, the sky is a limit.

My first blog ever

hello everyone